Madrid leader’s tribute to the ‘conquistador’ Hernán Cortés shakes up Mexico City politics
Posted by cambeiu@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 17 comments
she had likened Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to the Cuban dictatorship, and defended the Spanish conquest of the Americas as a civilizing process rather than a genocide.
As another great Spaniard once said: "Europe is a garden."
Cortes was obviously just expanding the garden by civilizing the natives. The conquest of the Americas was above all an an act of altruism and compassion by the conquistadores. Just like the Danes taking away the children of uncivilized Greenlanders is also an act of compassion.
It is heavy the burden that the European white men had to carry over the centuries and continues to carry it to this day.
Did you say "thank you", dear Latin American savage?
Socraman@reddit
For the ignorant of Spanish politics: Ayuso is known to be Spain's version of Donald Trump, because she's stupid, arrogant, crass and a populist.
She's a member of the conservative People's Party (PP) and acts as if she's the leader of the opposition to the Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and his socialist party (PSOE). Even though there's an actual national leader of the opposition, PP's president Feijóo, who's seen as (barely) more moderate, and definitely much less populist.
Ayuso is notorious for her performances of idiocy, like calling the PM a "son of a bitch" and the pretending she said something else, saying that traffic jams are cool, or that Madrid is Spain inside of Spain. During the last regional elections, her motto was "communism or freedom".
Oh also she's known for dismantle public services in benefit of the private sector and for sending almost 8000 elderly to their deaths during COVID, not allowing them to go to ICUs in hospitals and letting them rot and die in the nursery homes managed by the regional government, because "they were going to die anyway".
She wins elections because she embodies the stereotype of the madrileño: an arrogant ignorant who thinks that they live in the centre of the world. Also she has very powerful friends in the top companies of the country, and it's probably just their puppet.
Gruenemeyer@reddit
Thanks for the context.
rebootyourbrainstem@reddit
So an attention w- seeker. I guess in today's world we're going to see more of that.
Socraman@reddit
Exactly. She's also a moron and her chief of staff is actually the one in control. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who goes by the name MAR, has been a pioneer in populist right wing politics in Spain, being the spokesman of the national government in 96-98, and then participating as a shit making machine in a myriad of newspapers and TV programs.
He was even mentioned in an European Commission report as a danger to the rule of law in Spain, due to his harassment, threats and intimidation on the press. "We're gonna crush you, idiots. You're gonna have to close. Fuck you" he said to the journalists that investigated the corruption of Ayuso's lover.
They make quite the dynamic duo, with her crassness and his dirty tactics. They are still afraid of making the jump to national politics, because many think that their narrative of "Madrid is the best the rest of Spain are a bunch of idiot peasants" will not work in the national arena.
2stepsfromglory@reddit
And yet I'm willing to bet she will win the next elections in Madrid, even after all the corruption scandals surrounding her boyfriend and the fact that she's responsible for the death of 7291 elders.
giboauja@reddit
I mean the Aztecs sucked and im sure there were some "winners" but fck man were the Spanish fcking awful colonizers.
And yeah some colonizers were less awful than others.
Socraman@reddit
Were the British less awful colonizers than the Spaniards?
giboauja@reddit
I mean sometimes they built a train I guess.
Socraman@reddit
Like the Spaniards. The first train ever in Spain was built in Cuba.
Now tell me what happened to the natives in North America, and why all colonial yanks look like they were born in Birmingham.
2stepsfromglory@reddit
Ugh, I’m kinda tired of this whitewashing of Spanish colonialism by always deflecting with 'but the English were worse'. You’re comparing apples and oranges here given the huge differences between the American continent north and south of the Rio Grande, including population density, total number of people living in each part of the continent pre-colonization, geography, the fact that most tribes in North America were nomadic or semi-nomadic instead of sedentary like the huge civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andes, and the different types of colonization; with extractivist colonialism being more common in Spanish colonies (which requires native labour force to extract the natural resources) while settler colonialism was the case for the English ones (which implies the arrival of huge waves of colonists). Also, there’s more than a century between Columbus first trip and the first English settlement in Virginia, so part of the damage was already present across the continent, especially in regards of the spread of certain Old-World epidemics.
Heck, if you go by death toll (and even when we don’t exactly know how many natives lived in North America prior to the establishment of Jamestown, with numbers that range between 10 to 20 million) Spanish colonialism was probably the deadliest by total numbers: Mesoamerica went from around 20 million people in 1521 to 1.5 million by the 1600, all while Peru went from 10 million in 1500 to 1.3 million inhabitants by 1600 (and Peru didn’t recover its pre-colonization numbers up until 1960). And sure, the diseases are partly responsible, but only if we take into account the oppressive colonial system of exploitation of native labour, wars, famines, the policies of reconcentration of natives and the disruption of local trade routes by the interests of the colonial elite.
And also, this is kinda disingenuous since the Spanish settlers were also responsible for the extermination of several tribes, like it's the case of the Tainos.
Kubocho@reddit
Seems like you are quite proud of the Trail of Tears
Socraman@reddit
I'm not defending Spanish colonialism but the dude said that they were the worst colonizers and I beg to differ.
giboauja@reddit
Most of the native population in the US died of plague...
serpenta@reddit
Are we supposed to believe that without the plague, native Americans would have been left alone? The Californian genocide alone makes me doubtful.
giboauja@reddit
? Who said that. Im just throwing shade at Spain.
serpenta@reddit
The scheme was pretty much the same: extract resources, then leave without restoring the resources gathered, which left the remaining population at an disadvantage, and often in turmoil. They built this train, to move workers (in cattle cars) and resources. After they left, the rail rusted as there was no potential for keeping it running. "Civilizing" would've been apt, if the goal would be to let those people stand on their own. But the prevailing notion was that these people are essentially - as in by their nature - unfit to self govern. The civilizing part was an afterthought to justify the status quo, after the colonization was already done.
You know, in European politics of the time, you couldn't really just take land, without first having justification for it. So there was this debate going on, after the Americas were discovered, whether they can be considered occupied by anyone, with Europeans clearly having no claim to it. And the concept that won, was that they are not, that the land is terra nulla - an empty land that can be just taken. People living there weren't considered to live there. And this is where European racism stems from - before colonization, the Europeans were not racist. Religious fanatics yes, but the knowledge of the time did not differentate between people of European, African or Asian descent. It all started because of colonization, and the required concept of superiority, that allowed Europeans to come to terms with subjugating peoples of the Americas.
serpenta@reddit
Sister, the Spanish weren't even considered whites until after second world war xD